About Blue Thumb
Blue Thumb - Planting for Clean Water™ is a collaborative program originally developed by Rice Creek Watershed District. Blue Thumb partners are a group of professionals from local governmental units (watershed and conservation districts, cities, counties); non-profit and community organizations; and nursery and landscape professionals.
The Blue Thumb program aims to encourage homeowners to use native plant gardening, raingardens, and shoreline stabilization to reduce runoff from their home landscape in an effort improve water quality. Since we all want clean water, Blue Thumb helps partners present a unified public education message.
Partners may use the attractive Blue Thumb logo on print pieces, purchase promotional materials co-developed by field professionals, and more effectively collaborate with agencies and organizations with shared education goals. A partnership like Blue Thumb minimizes duplication and increases the strength of our reach to watershed residents. Retailers benefit from the increased exposure that results from association with Blue Thumb, and will also receive technical support and opportunities for professional development through trainings and workshops.
One element of the Blue Thumb program is an easy-to-use website for homeowners seeking native plant gardening information. Another key component is a raingarden installation manual for homeowners currently being co-developed by Minnesota landscape ecologists Dan Shaw and Rusty Schmidt. This resource will be available in Summer 2007.
Get Involved
Contact Dawn Pape dpape@ricecreek.org
- Do a Blue Thumb planting
- Help with a planting
- Adopt a project
- Host a neighborhood Blue Thumb party
- Put a Blue Thumb sign in your yard - especially if you have a Blue Thumb project
- Get trained to give Blue Thumb Intro. Shows at neighborhood Blue Thumb parties
- Staff a Blue Thumb booth at local fairs
- Become a Blue Thumb partner
- Attend Blue Thumb meetings and work on task force committees
- Make a donation
- Do you have other ideas on how to use your talents to promote Blue Thumb? Let us know!